“Standing at the Crossroads: Race Class and Art” is commentary by Kevin Alexander Gray, president of the South Carolina ACLU and contributing editor to Black News in Columbia, SC. Here is an excerpt:
…Whenever people say things like Hurricane Katrina”ripped the veil off racism and poverty”I am reminded of a line from a song in Craig Brewer’s film Hustle and Flow:”It might be new to you but it’s been like this for years.”In fact, the film pricked my race/class sensibilities more than anything else in the midst of the latest round of race talk.
Shot in the working-class neighborhoods of Brewer’s hometown, Memphis, Tennessee, Hustle and Flow is the story of DJay (played by Oscar nominee Terrence Howard), a pimp having a”midlife crisis.”He’s 35, the same age as his father when he died, and he fears his life will soon be over unless he changes course.
The film’s look, feel and sound are all intimately familiar. From the dirt on the walls of a shotgun house to the hot, wet, sticky red clay-tinted heat of a Southern summer and the ever-present, almost useless dirty portable fan. From the train track separating the haves from the have-nots to the get-by job that gets you to the weekend to the juke joint where anything happens. From the sound of the blues – even in rap music – right down to the neighborhood, language and attitudes, Brewer puts a face on the people that those such as Bill Cosby wish to be invisible. Some of them are even white. …
